Peter Jackson isn't just directing the two Hobbit films. He's also playing host to West Memphis Three member Damien Echols, who was recently on death row in America before being released.

Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh worked for years behind the scenes to get Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley freed after the three men had been convicted as teenagers of killing three 8-year-old boys in the Arkansas town of West Memphis in 1993.

The men later plead guilty to lesser charges and were released with time served, but have publicly maintained their innocence.

During a press conference in New Zealand on Friday that was reported by the Associated Press, Jackson revealed that he had applied for an exemption to immigration laws, allowing him to bring Echols to New Zealand.

"He's come here to work with us on a couple of things," Jackson told reporters. "We're doing investigative work, we're doing forensic work… with the purpose of getting a complete pardon."